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17 April 2012

The Tolstoy Connection

A morsel of validation! A family
emigration story from Latvia gets a helping hand from local history.

The
Family Story:

Janis
(John) Jurikas
(1880-1954)
was originally given passage money by a member of the Tolstoy family
in London, in order to reach Canada.

My
Earlier Thoughts:

The
intriguing story may have some truth although Count Leo Tolstoy, the
renowned author, was apparently never in England (he died in Russia
in 1910). Count Tolstoy was
known for his generous sponsorship of group emigration for Russian
Doukhobors. Some of those groups came to western Canada in 1898 and
1899.(1) I could not ascertain that any of Leo Tolstoy’s children
or descendants happened to be in London at an appropriate time for
Janis Jurikas. If the financial assistance took place, perhaps it was
before he went to England.

What is
certain is that John entered Canada at least twice. Iwan [sic]
Jurikas, a general labourer age 26, came to Halifax 12 April 1907 on
the ship Sicilian from Glasgow — also with a Johan Tukum
(probably a cousin), age 28 and a carpenter.(2) Their destinations
were Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario, respectively. Then Iwan
Jurikas, a “Lish” [sic: possibly a corruption of Lettish]
native born in Russia, age 29, previous occupation painter, arrived
in Montreal via Liverpool on the ship Cedric in April 1910.(3)
John or brother Paul, or both, were in New York by 1912 when Victor
Freibergs married their sister Marija.

Recently Found:

"It is interesting to note, that
within the boundaries of the Russian Empire, Limbaži was considered
a place of exile, to which the government sent unruly
freethinkers-noblemen. And so in 1899 Lev Tolstoy's associate, lawyer
Bodyansky, was sent to Limbaži. He had already sold his estates and
bought land in Canada for those being persecuted by the Czarist
regime. After Bodyansky's departure to Canada from the "Limbaži
exile", his children remained on good terms and in contact with
students in Limbaži. They sent to Limbaži a variety of Tolstoy's
writings. The gendarmerie in town questioned and arrested a number of
people. After that, some of the oldest students - Daugulis, Jurikas
and Eglitis - were also exiled from Vidzeme province."(4)
[emphasis added]

The reference to Bodyansky more
than likely means the nobleman and “Tolstoyan activist,”
Alexander Mikhailovich Bodyansky, later associated with Doukhobor
settlements in Canada.(5) The movement espoused “communalism”
and certainly begs for a bit more background in my Jurikas family
history, especially regarding Tolstoy's social theories. Did his group help subsidize
individual emigrants to spread his ideals? In 1899 Janis Jurikas was
about eighteen-nineteen years old. It's not difficult to imagine the
impression such free thinking would make on young men thoroughly
unhappy with alien domination of their lives and culture.

Janis Jurikas ca.1948

Epilogue:

About a
decade of John's life in Canada and the United States remains
unaccounted for. Whether he worked to spread Tolstoyan ideals is not
known. In 1921 he travelled from the U.S. to meet his brother Paul
who was working in Vladivostock, where they prepared to visit a
liberated Latvia. John dedicated himself to working the family farm
near Limbaži
until he and his family were removed in the infamous Soviet
confiscations and deportations. His widow and daughters were allowed
to return in the 1960s to occupy the sadly neglected old family home
once again.